FOLLOW-UP

Elizabeth Warren Calls for Investigation of Private Prisons After Daily Beast Report

The senator asked for an investigation into prison contractors that are being sued over their work programs.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Thursday called on the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General to open an investigation into private prison contractors that have been accused of breaking a landmark human-trafficking law. Warren’s request follows a Daily Beast report that the GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison company (and an ICE contractor), has been repeatedly sued by former detainees over a so-called “voluntary” work program. The lawsuits allege that GEO forces inmates to do manual labor for $1 a day, or even less, and sometimes punishes those who refuse with solitary confinement.

“The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) and CoreCivic, the two largest for-profit, federally-contracted prison companies, which ICE contracts to house immigrant detainees along the U.S. southern border, face several lawsuits alleging the use of punishment as a tool to coerce detainees into voluntary work programs,” Warren wrote in a press release. “... GEO’s private claim that ICE policies require, recommend, or allow the use of solitary confinement to coerce participation in a ‘voluntary’ work program is alarming.”